Oil Hopes Stoke Falklands Shift Away From Loyal Shrine to U.K.
Stanley Dock
Michael Luongo/Bloomberg
The dock in Stanley, the Falkland Islands. Tiny Stanley, a coastal town with about 2,300 residents, has a strong Cape Cod feel about it.
The dock in Stanley, the Falkland Islands. Tiny Stanley, a coastal town with about 2,300 residents, has a strong Cape Cod feel about it. Photographer: Michael Luongo/Bloomberg
Nigel Haywood
Michael Luongo/Bloomberg
Falkland Islands Governor Nigel Haywood, a native of the United Kingdom, in the greenhouse of the Governors Mansion, Stanley, Falklands Islands, a British Overseas Territory.
Falkland Islands Governor Nigel Haywood, a native of the United Kingdom, in the greenhouse of the Governors Mansion, Stanley, Falklands Islands, a British Overseas Territory. Photographer: Michael Luongo/Bloomberg
Michael Butcher
Michael Luongo/Bloomberg
Michael Butcher in his yard with whale bones, in Stanley, the Falkland Islands. A welder by trade, Butcher collects and assembles beached whale bones for display in his yard; his house is a favorite stopping point for tourists to Stanley.
Michael Butcher in his yard with whale bones, in Stanley, the Falkland Islands. A welder by trade, Butcher collects and assembles beached whale bones for display in his yard; his house is a favorite stopping point for tourists to Stanley. Photographer: Michael Luongo/Bloomberg
Jan Cheek and Bill Luxton
Michael Luongo/Bloomberg
Jan Cheek and Bill Luxton, members of the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly, with a photograph of HRM Queen Elizabeth II, in Stanley, the Falkland Islands. Cheek and Luxton are natives of the islands, with their families going back several generations.
Jan Cheek and Bill Luxton, members of the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly, with a photograph of HRM Queen Elizabeth II, in Stanley, the Falkland Islands. Cheek and Luxton are natives of the islands, with their families going back several generations. Photographer: Michael Luongo/Bloomberg
Falkland Islands Museum
Michael Luongo/Bloomberg
The interior of the Falkland Islands Museum in Stanley, the Falkland Islands. The museum has a collection of artifacts dating to the earliest history of the islands.
The interior of the Falkland Islands Museum in Stanley, the Falkland Islands. The museum has a collection of artifacts dating to the earliest history of the islands. Photographer: Michael Luongo/Bloomberg
Christ Church Cathedral
Michael Luongo/Bloomberg
Christ Church Cathedral on Ross Road is shown in Stanley, Falkland Islands. The 1892 church is one of the largest buildings in Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands. It has a whale bone monument dedicated in 1933 to commemorate a century of British rule.
Christ Church Cathedral on Ross Road is shown in Stanley, Falkland Islands. The 1892 church is one of the largest buildings in Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands. It has a whale bone monument dedicated in 1933 to commemorate a century of British rule. Photographer: Michael Luongo/Bloomberg
About 8,000 miles from London, a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II stares from the wall of the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly. Yet there’s a growing question about how long the Union Jack will fly as oil exploration stirs up visions of wealth and independence among a shifting population.
The pervasive British presence in the Falkland Islands, an archipelago off the southern tip of Argentina, reflects a history of U.K. rule since 1833, bolstered by a surge in patriotism and a homestead movement after the failed 1982 Argentine invasion. About 90 percent of the 2,500 inhabitants claim birth in Britain or descent from Britons.
Legislative Assemblywoman Jan Cheek, whose family goes back to 1842 on the islands, said her grandmother never left the Falklands and “she still called the U.K. home.”
Cheek sees a new identity forming, however. “I think we’ve reached the stage now where I’m definitely a Falkland Islander first and British second,” she said.
I came to the Falklands mostly for its famous wildlife, spread across two main islands, East and West Falkland, and 778 smaller islands in an area roughly the size of Connecticut. Still, I found the reasons why people moved here just as fascinating -- and increasingly in recent years those people aren’t Britons.
Pauline Hayward, owner of the Woodbine Cafe, came from Yorkshire in 1983 because she saw a need she could fill: “I was reading in the newspaper one day and they were just saying how they haven’t got a fish-and-chips shop in the Falklands. So I came. I’m just adventurous I guess.”
The cafe was a simple place, with a strong smell of fish and grease. There were just a few chairs and tables, a backwards clock on the wall that kept confusing me, and a long line of customers who kept breaking into my chat with Hayward.
‘Most British Pub’
At night, loud young men and women spill from Globe Tavern. Around the corner, the Victory Bar flies St. George flags. Opened in 1946, it has been owned since 1984 by native Ally Jacobson and his wife, Cathy, originally from Southampton, U.K. She lifted a pint, proclaiming Victory “the most British pub in the Falkland Islands.”
Still, oil worker Pete Taylor of Aberdeen, Scotland, sees the capital city of Stanley “changing and expanding.” Falkland Oil & Gas Ltd. announced recently that it planned to run tests in an area “with estimated reserves of 4.7 billion barrels,” according to a June 9 report of the South Atlantic News Agency.
I met Taylor, who works on an exploratory offshore oil rig, at the Malvina House Hotel, which recently doubled in size largely to accommodate oil workers.
‘Only English Person’
Chef Matt Clarke of Surrey oversees the kitchen and proclaims, “I am the only English person in the hotel.” His wife, Canadian Jasper Gottschalk, manages the restaurant, a space adorned with Victorian cast-iron columns and an enormous window overlooking the harbor. Almost her entire staff is Chilean.
There are more Chileans at the Falklands Brasserie, owned by Santiago native Alex Olmedo. He arrived in 1990, when “there were only 10 Chileans.” Now, almost 250 Chileans live here, accounting for 10 percent of the population and making Spanish the second language.
New Zealander Paul Trowell, general manager of the Falkland Islands Tourist Board, said that with the islands so close to South America, Chileans are “a really good fit for here. It brings cultural diversity to the country.”
‘The New Force’
Yet Trowell feels the biggest change goes beyond demographics. Tourism to the Falklands is rising, but hotel and apartment rental expansion is really about oil, increasing the cost of and strain on accommodation. “That’s what happens when oil is the new force in the town,” he said.
The Falkland Islands economy is almost self-sufficient thanks to commercial fishing-license fees. The revenue makes up the major part of the annual 45.5 million pound budget.
One bill that isn’t covered locally is security, seen partly in the 1,400 soldiers stationed on the Falklands military base of Mount Pleasant. The motherland pays, but that could change with major oil discoveries.
Phyl Rendell, the director of mineral resources for the islands, says there is “really good progress, but no guarantees that we’re going to get to have a production phase where we’re going to have large sums of money coming in.”
Rendell, a Falklands native, said, “We’ve been paying our own way, we’ve been doing that since the fishery was declared back in 1987, so we’ve got control of our economy and how we develop it. We’re not beholden to Britain.”
‘British Second’
Conscious of the sovereign in her own office smiling down on her, Rendell added, “We’re very patriotic toward the Queen.” But what the 85-year-old monarch represented is changing.
“People are very proud to be Falkland Islanders,” Rendell said, then echoed the Assemblywoman Cheek. “If you ask a Falkland Islander who are you, they will say a Falkland Islander first and British second.”
With oil-exploration maps lying on a table between us, a look of determination came into Rendell’s face as she said, “If we could also pay for defense, that would be, you know, fantastic. That would also be a real bonus.”
That brought up an awkward question: If oil paid for defense, could the Falklands stop relying on Britain altogether?
“It’s certainly the direction we intend going,” Rendell said, adding, “Oil revenue would help us to do that, to buy our independence.”
(Michael Luongo writes on travel for Muse, the arts and culture section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer of this column: Michael Luongo at mtluongo@aol.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
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